Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: thirstiness, dryness, parched, craving, strong desire, longing, yearning, avidity, hunger, voracity, keenness, eagerness, lust, appetite, passion, love, crave, want, covet, desire, hunger for/after, lust for/after, hanker for/after, have one's heart set on

Antonyms: aversion, distaste, apathy, dislike, hatred, antipathy, disgust, disregard, abhorrence, acrimony, wet, animosity, animus, antagonism, bad feeling, bitterness, be averse to, detestation

Showing 2301 to 2325 of 5000 results

2301. Leaping Where You Cannot Look

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... his closing speech before the Supreme Court, Mr. Adams spoke these stirring words, “Last night, I spoke with my friend, Cinque. I told him what was to transpire here today. He told me, as was the practice among his people, he had been talking to his ancestors now long gone. They told him, all would be well.” Then John Quincy Adams turned to the members of the Supreme Court and he added these words: “As I stand before you today, I believe we would do well to learn from Cinque. We would do well to talk ...

2302. Cheering from the Stands

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... will get tangled in the chain. It might even cause us to fall. This is the problem of sin. It keeps us from winning the race. It stands in the way of the good we would accomplish. We are not perfect people and God forgives our sin, but still God longs to help us get that chain off our legs, get rid of that sin, so that we can be what God has called us to be. So, the writer encourages us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and . . . [to] run with perseverance the ...

2303. Exactly How Wide Is It?

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... everyone who has his or her name on a church roll is part of the family of Christ? Most of the people in this land call themselves Christian. If you ask them, they will tell you that they expect to enter heaven someday. It makes no difference how long it has been since they darkened the door of a church. It makes no difference how loving they have been to their neighbor. It makes no difference how many of the Ten Commandments they have shattered they expect to be in. Is it really that easy? It’s something ...

2304. Hard Words to Hear at Christmas

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... would expect me to speak to him/her? People often say that they want sermons to be biblical, so here's a biblical sermon. Is this what we want? When John really got cranked up, his words must have blistered the ears of all those people who came such a long way to hear him. When John begins the heart of his sermon in verse 10, the judgment roars out. Fire seems to be John's favorite threat. John presents two images of judgment. The first is an axe chopping down a tree that bears no fruit. The dead wood will ...

2305. A Shepherd's Story

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... he wants. I guess you could order everyone around if your uncle was Julius Caesar, and you were handpicked to be emperor. Not so awful long ago, he decided to call for a census. He wanted to know how many subjects he had, and how big his tax base was. Everybody ... on the mother's face when we told her about the angels. You could tell she knew something was up, but you could tell she thought long and hard about what we told her. It's been a few days since this happened, so it's still sinking in. It doesn't ...

2306. The Horror before the Blessing

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... If it seems as though Jesus gets away, leaving the other children to take the brutality, Jesus' escape is only temporary. As a man, Jesus faces the brutality, the senseless violence, the repression born of insecurity that marks this story and too many other stories. We may long for a respite from the news reports that break our hearts, even if only for a few days this time of year. Matthew reminds us that we will not get such a break. The evil of the world keeps right on going. Christmas time even seems to ...

2307. Those Who Most Need a Blessing

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... people spend their whole lives poor in spirit. Besides simply being the first in line, this beatitude seems to set the tone for the next few verses. Jesus then pronounces a blessing on those who mourn. Surely, we feel least blessed when we mourn. Grief can be a long, arduous process. In our deepest grief, we don't feel like doing anything. The pain seems to clutch at our souls, unwilling to let go of us. No matter how much we cry, it is never enough. When we grieve, we surely are poor in spirit. Many of ...

2308. Faith to Follow

John 3:1-17

Sermon

Lee Griess

... its true dimension. That's what Jesus was trying to tell Nicodemus. You must be born again. You must risk a new beginning. You must trust yourself to a new birth in God to truly be part of the kingdom of God. As long as you hold on to the old, as long as you are afraid to follow, as long as you are unwilling to risk your life for God, you will not be part of God's great adventure. And that adventure is all around us. For instance, when we follow God's teachings on honesty despite the fear of the ...

2309. In Whose Likeness?

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... a concession to the realities of this world, an acknowledgment that when in Rome you have to do as the Romans do. It may sound like a justification for living as unabashed consumers all week long, so long as we come to church and say our prayers on Sunday. Put the holy coins in the treasury, but live by the pagan stuff all week long. Think again. If the coin belongs to Caesar, if the likeness it bears is that of the emperor, to whom it should be given, then what should be given to God? What belongs to God ...

2310. A Question of Loyalty

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... ; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord." Perhaps it was easier for the people to trust God when they were traveling out in the desert, depending on God to meet their every need during their long journey, than it was once they settled in the promised land where they were more self-sufficient. Once there, they became distracted with other things that began to crowd God out of their lives. Joshua knew how difficult it would be for the people of Israel ...

2311. No Partiality

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... 's speech is the most important sermon in the book of Acts. It gives us an interpretive framework for what follows in the Christian, as well as the Jewish community: the tendency to misunderstand uncomfortable truth even when it should be absolutely clear. Before long, Philip was commanded by an angel to go to a wilderness road where he encountered an Ethiopian eunuch who certainly looked like another "God-fearer" since he was reading from Isaiah 53 but could not understand the meaning. As far as the Jewish ...

2312. All About Me?

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... Thessalonica, smuggled out of Beroea, had a less-than-stellar attempt at inculturating the gospel at Athens, and spent an unusually long time in Corinth where some were now openly critical of him, feeling that while his writing may have been strong; his ... s place. He was prisoner 16670, Father Maximilian Kolbe. The SS man, "Butcher" Fritsch, did not care who went to the starvation bunker, as long as there were ten of them, so he nodded. "Who are you?" he asked carelessly. "I am a Catholic priest. I wish to ...

2313. In Spite of Evidence to the Contrary

Romans 4:13-25

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... Paul calls it "hoping against hope." Or as I would like to paraphrase it, "in spite of evidence to the contrary." Paul draws on the ancient story of Abraham and Sarah to illustrate what this kind of faith is. You know the story. Aged Abraham and Sarah, long past the time of child bearing, both aged, gnarled, and withered, were devastated. Not to have children to carry on the family was a terrible fate to suffer in that world. Worse yet, to have no male heir would put the meaning of your life into question ...

2314. Seeing God Work for Good

Romans 8:26-39

Sermon

Larry Lange

... . I was on my way home from an out-of-town hospital visit, and I had planned to stop at the town hall for a walleye fry benefit for Larry which, I supposed, was like everything else in Larry's life, ruined. The parking lot, when I finally reached it long after there were any walleye left to fry, was completely full. I was soaking wet, shivering, starving. Inside the town hall it was bright as day and as warm and humid as a June afternoon. I saw Larry, a man on death row, standing near the door, laughing and ...

2315. How Beautiful the Feet

Romans 10:5-15

Sermon

Larry Lange

... here, can we? I'll meet you there in fifteen minutes." And so he did. Pastor Kyle read, "The Lord is my shepherd ..." and not long after, Judy's father died. The next day, Judy gave her husband the task of calling the new pastor to request that the Pastor Kyle ... . After the burial, she walked right by the new pastor to her car, vowing to herself that she would never return to church again as long as the new pastor was there. "I've had it with all of them," is what she told her husband. A few months later, a ...

2316. A Vision Vanished

Philippians 3:4-14

Sermon

Larry Lange

... say something now; he wasn't the kind of guy to be able to make up some story on the spur of the moment; as a child he'd been slapped up too many times by his old man for doing just that. Arnold knew he'd already paused too long — long enough so that if he made up a story, the bartender would know he was lying. Arnold was trembling. The story was too strong for him. It had tricked him. "Whadja' see, Arnie?" asked the bartender smiling. Arnold looked up and down the bar, leaned forward and whispered, "I ...

2317. Mentoring Matters

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... not find time for, an enviable stock portfolio, and a brother he had not talked with in years. He simply existed from one deadline to another. One night as he sat exhausted in front of his television set, flipping through channels, he paused on Nightline long enough to catch a glimpse of his former teacher and friend, Morrie Schwartz. He saw Morrie explaining to Ted Koppel that he had been diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), or Lou Gehrig's disease, and that he was learning how to die. Mitch ...

2318. What’s In A Name?

Acts 11:19-30

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

... tell you something about a person’s ancestors. If your last name is Farmer, you probably have an ancestor who was a farmer. If your last name is Johnson, you probably have an ancestor whose first name was John. Because your last name was given to you long before you were born, it doesn’t really tell anything about you, but your nickname is different. It’s given to you after you’re born, after the people around you get to know you. Nicknames often tell us something about the person with the name. If ...

2319. Help Me, I'm Lost

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... terrain is pretty treacherous. He must have fallen. What do we do?!” They did what any well-prepared hiker does in the twenty-first century. They pulled out their cell phone, and called for help! And before too long, an emergency rescue helicopter was hovering at 6,000 feet overhead. And not too long after that, a helicopter from the news station was in the area, investigating the story. And just when they were going to call more people into the search . . . the third hiker turned up, out of nowhere, safe ...

2320. Broken Lives and Broken Chains

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... love someone and help someone like me?" That was when I told him about the woman caught in adultery and the thief on the cross. His eyes got wide with wonder and awe as the realization of the depth of God's love. Then he spoke three words with such longing and hunger I'll never forget. "I want Jesus." He accepted Jesus as his personal Savior, right then and there, in that hospital room. I stood next to his bed and laid my hand on his head. I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and asked God to bring healing and ...

2321. Step By Step

Acts 11:1-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... you can say when you meet people, so they'll know that you value what you're doing and you think it's important?" Not long after that, they were at a party. A woman said to Peggy in a rather condescending tone, "And, dear what is it that you do ... time. It was a Step By Step process of creating and growing a world. We have to do the same thing in raising our children. Over the long haul, what we hope our children learn from us is: A sense of destiny: We want them to know they are unique, special, so they can ...

2322. LENT: The Passion of Christ: "Betrayed"

John 13:21-30; Matthew 26:14-16; 45-50

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... betrayed by someone you trusted and loved. I'll bet you've all experienced it in some form, haven't you. I have. And for a long time, that hurt and that betrayal colored everything I did. And I felt like I couldn't trust anyone. It happened when I was in the ... beside the mirror with a black pen, were the words: "Judas, come home; all is forgiven." He says he pondered that for a long time, wondering who it was who put the message there. Was it some father, hoping that a prodigal son would find his way into ...

2323. Reversal of Fortune

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... 'S WITH THE WOES Jesus talks about here? Look at us? We might actually fit into any one of those categories. Some consider us rich and compared to the rest of the world, we are. Most of us haven't every really been hungry or gone without food for very long. And one of the things I like to do best is laugh. And most of us like to have others speak well of us. So does that mean all we get are the woes? I might be wrong, but I don't think so. Instead, I think this passage was ...

2324. Just a Little Faith Will Do

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... no more than an hour and a half. Invariably he slept in a sitting position, with his head resting against a piece of wood driven into the wall. He could not, in fact, have lain down even had he wished, for his cell was only four and a half feet long. “He wore nothing but a habit and a mantle of the coarsest fabric. His head and feet were always bare, regardless of the weather. He fasted for two days out of every three” till he was so weak that, in St. Teresa’s picturesque phrase, “he seemed to be ...

2325. Sitting at the Big People Table

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 1 Timothy 2:1-7

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... kid's table. My wife Mary gave me a poem which perfectly describes the experience of sitting at the little kid's table and the longing we had for the big people table. The title of the poem is "Good-bye, Pumpkin Pie!" and it was written by Howard D. ... dressing and trimmings, My feast was now ending Before its beginning. "Good-bye, pumpkin pie!" I said, as I walked by it, "So long, green bean bake!" Though I never would try it, "Farewell, acorn squash, "And potatoes au gratin! "Ta-ta, apple tart "With your ...

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